


Shadow Girl

by DragonLover19



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Ghosts, Humor, Magic, puns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-08-02 19:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16311221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonLover19/pseuds/DragonLover19
Summary: Sometimes, friends come in all shapes and sizes.But one 'friend' in particular takes it up a notch!Join Bow on her unlikely adventure with her new shadowy friend while trying to keep her a secret and out of the hands of those who would use her powers for all the wrong reasons!





	1. A Story

_Once upon a time in a distant land far away, there was once a small kingdom. It was ruled by a benevolent king and his kindhearted queen. Under their rule and guidance, the kingdom prospered_ —

**That means that the kingdom was doing well. And benevolent means well-meaning and kind.**

_The kingdom prospered under the king and queen. The years would go by and the small kingdom thrived. Everything seemed to be at peace in the small kingdom. But all was not well as everyone had hoped._

_Outside of the kingdom, war raged as different nations—_

**Well they’re kinda like a kingdom but bigger and have a united history or common ground. Now as I was saying.**

_War raged between the different nations, fighting with each other with—_

**I don’t know what they were fighting about back then kiddo. People will fight with anyone if they feel like it. Now are you going to listen to my story or not?**

_The nations fought with each other, each side coating the ground with blood of their enemies and of the many innocents that were caught in the crossfires. With so many losses on all sides, the nations soon realized that if one of them didn’t get any backup soon, then all would be lost. But no one wanted to side with anyone. They were all enemies! All except for one small kingdom._

_The nations pleaded with the king and queen, offering gold, food, trade, knowledge from the furthest corners of the planet just so the small kingdom would side with one of them and turn the tide against the war. But, they would not budge. While they wanted to help, their people came first. War would not help the small kingdom. It would only bring destruction and death in its wake._

_Not wanting to risk spreading the war to their kingdom, the king and queen rejected all offers and turned down all the requests to join the war. But this turned out to be a bad mistake. A terrible one._

_The nations, angered by the king and queen’s refusal to fight, turned on the small kingdom._

_They figured that since they refused to fight with them, they didn’t deserve to live in peace._

_Lives were lost, villages were destroyed, and it continued to get worse as time went on._

_The king, filled with grief on the turn of events on his once peaceful kingdom, begged for mercy from the nations. All his pleads fell on deaf ears and—_

**No I didn’t mean they couldn’t hear him kid. They just ignored him and didn’t care about how he felt. Yes they were big meanies and poopyheads, but war will do that to you sometimes.**

_His pleads fell on deaf ears and the nations continued to attack his kingdom. All hope seemed lost as the war went on, until one night the king received a visitor. The visitor was a curiously strange fellow to the king and spoke in a tongue that both seemed foreign and familiar to him. The visitor greeted the king like an old friend, showing compassion and condolence for the king in his current predicament he and his kingdom where in._

_The visitor told the king that they were but a kind traveler who had wandered for many years and know of many things many did not. They told the king of stones that reached the stars, a sea made of sand, and a place where snow never ceased falling from the sky where the lights danced with colors. Fascinated by the visitor’s stories, the king asked if they could possibly know how to stop the nations from attacking his people._

_To his delight, the visitor did. But not only did he know how to stop the war on his kingdom, they knew how to stop the war altogether! The king only needed to do four important items to end the war. The first was the strongest tree found in the sea of sand. The second was a gem found in the deepest caves of the rocks that touched the stars high above. The third was a carving knife that could cut and shape anything the wielder wanted, hidden under the dancing lights where snow never ceased falling. And the final was light of a full blue moon._

_At once the king sent out his best men to track down the items required to stop the war, and in two months his men returned with the three items. Handing them to the visitor, the king and his men watched in awe and wonder as the visitor started to cut the strongest tree with the knife, cutting into it like in was nothing more than air. The visitor carved and shaped the wood down till it was a small wooden block the size of a humans head. He then asked the king to step forward, and with the knife carved the block, shaping it smaller and smaller till it was only a small piece of its old form._

_Taking the wood and placing it near the king’s face, the visitor once again started carving with careful steady hands, stopping multiple times to place the block of wood against the king's face for making it into a perfect fit. Finally, the visitor finished his work._

_The wood that was used from the strongest tree had been made into a mask! Made to fit the king’s face and his alone._

_With the carving done, the visitor took the gem and gave the king very strict instructions._

_“My king. With this mask it will grant your deepest wish and stop this war. But I must warn you. Only the light of the blue moon must this mask be bathed in and not by any other light of the moon. For if that were to happen, a dark force will be upon your kingdom far darker than what this war has caused.”_

_With his final words of wisdom, the visitor placed the gem on the mask, and right before everyone’s eyes the mask transformed into the most elegant mask anyone had laid eyes on. Handing the mask over, the visitor left without saying goodbye and vanished._

_The king, mindful to what the visitor had told him, kept the mask hidden, waiting for the night of the blue moon to come. During his waiting the queen gave birth to their son—_

**Oh! Um! It’s uh-how to explain this to a two year old, uh, it’s-it’s-i-i-it’s when you come into existence and uh there’s the birds and the bees and I-I-I’lllll tell you when you’re older alright? Can we just get back to the story? Please?**

_During his waiting, his son was born, and for the first time since the nations attacked, the king was overwhelmed with great joy. So much that he spent every moment with his new son._

_Too much._

_The king spent so much time with the boy, he completely forgot about the mask and the moon._

_Once he realized this, it was too late. The blue moon had passed and the mask had not gotten even a single ray of its light. To make it even worse, the king’s spy told him of an upcoming attack that would surely kill them all._

_The king fell into despair but suddenly remembered of the soon coming blood moon. The queen and his men begged him not to go through with the plan, fearing the warning the visitor gave and dreaded to even think what would fall upon them if the king went through with it. The queen even went far to hide the mask, but king found it and promised his dear wife that he would fix everything._

_On the night of the blood moon, the nations were marching in for the final attack, ready to kill off what was left of the kingdom and its people. But before anyone could attack, the king came out on his best horse in his best regal clothes and the mask adorned on his face. He rode out to the edge of the kingdom, riding tall and proud._

_The nations thought the king was surrendering, and laughed thinking how foolish it would be to stop them now. But they wouldn’t be laughing soon._

_In the light of the blood moon, the mask started radiating with dark power that grew under the moon. The more the moon’s light shone down on it, the more the darkness grew until the kingdom and the nations could feel its power radiating. With a raised fist and an angry yell, the earth shook, startling everyone and terrifying many to flee for their lives. The ground cracked, splitting open and spreading apart like never before seen by the eyes of many._

_Farther and farther apart the ground went away, shoving land away from itself to far corners of the world. But even when the last of the nations lands were gone, the ground still shook and the king was still yelling._

_Fearing for her subjects lives, the queen ran out to him with the craving knife in hand. Her quickly formed plan was to break the mask, fearing what evil that now lurked there had taken control of her king. But to her despair, she could not reach her king on tumbling ground._

_With a heavy heart, she called out to him and threw the knife at his face._

_To her dread, the knife hit the mask. And her king._

_With the mask now split, its evil was stopped, and the king was dead._

_Heart broken, the queen ordered two of her men to take the two halves and hide them away so no one would find them. She never wanted the mask to fall into the wrong hands or see the grim reminder of what she had done._

_Over the years everyone soon forgot about the mask and lived peacefully in their new kingdom that grew inside of a forest. The end._

“Wad bout the qween?”

He blinked, peering down at the two eyes staring back at him. “ **What?** ”

“The qween? Wad happened to hew?” The child asked again, sucking on her thumb.

“ **Hey, hey! What did I tell you about sucking your thumb kid?** ” He growled, pulling her thumb out of her mouth. “ **And well, not much to tell you about the queen kiddo. No one really paid her too much mind after what happened. I guess they wanted to give her some space to… _help_ with what happened with the king.** ” Help in the form of grieving and dying of that grief years later, but he wasn’t going to let her know that. “ **Anyway, it’s bedtime kiddo! Off to bed with you!** ”

“Nooooo! No Bed Snawer!” She whined as she was scooped up and carried over to her plush bed.

“ ** _Snatcher_ kid. You’re getting close, but not quite there.** ” Snatcher ruffled her hair, taking pleasure in her whining as he tucked her in.

“But I’m not sweepy!” The child whined, though her argument was very weak as she let out a loud yawn.

“ **Oh yeah. _VERY_ convincing kiddo.** ” Snatcher rolled his eyes, tucking the blanket around her carefully. “ **Come on. We agreed that we would have one more story then you’d go to bed.** ”

“But.” The girl tried to struggle to stay awake, but the comfy bed and Snatcher placing her Mr. Floppy Ears in her arms was making her tired. She snuggled her toy, looking at Snatcher with a pleading drowsy look. “One mowe? Pwease?”

Snatcher hummed, rubbing his head before sighing. “ **Alright alright. ONE more story. But you go right to sleep when it’s over kid!** ”

She nodded, snuggling deeper into her covers.

“ **Ahem. Once, long ago, there was a man and a woman. They were deeply in love with one another.** ” Snatcher gazed at the young girl, seeing her eyes drooping. She was already falling asleep, but he didn’t mind. He never finished this story with her. “ **Every day they spent their time together, loving and cuddling, talking about their dreams for the future.** ” Her breathing evened out as he went on, talking more to himself then to his sleeping audience. “ **But one day a fight broke out between them, and the man and woman changed. Forever.** ”


	2. Fate

“ **AAAAAAHHHHH! HELP US!** ”

“ **RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!** ”

“ **THEY’RE AFTER US!** ”

“ **SOMEONE HELP US! AAAAAAHHHHH!** ”

The screams of his minions did little to grab his attention. His eyes were glued to the book, reading every line carefully and studying the sentences word by word. It had his full and utter concentration, and nothing would tear him away from it.

“Waaaor!”

Except maybe for the occasional checking glance.

Snatcher looked up from his book, looking down from the stump home of his many minions he had perched himself on the moment he entered the small village. Many of his minions were running around, heading in different directions with a unanimous unspoken agreement to get away from one individual. The said individual who was one not among the dead that was chasing them.

“Waor waor!” Down on the ground chasing the minions was a little girl. No older than four, she was like any typical child would be. Hyper, full of energy, curious of the world all around her, and purely innocent.

Snatcher couldn’t help but smile as the young child ran around his village chasing his minions, roaring like a monster with her little hands up in the air. He noted that her hood had fallen down again, and one of the pigtails was coming undone. He would have to fix that later if not sooner with the kid running around messing it up.

“ **AAAHHH! HELP! SHE’S CHASING ME!** ” One of the minions cried out. But Snatcher knew they weren’t in any _real_ danger. None of the minions were. Nor were they screaming in fear. The cheeriness in their tones and attempts to hold in their laughter was a far cry from any fear that would be there if they were in real danger. But, no. It was just a typical game of Monster Chasing.

It was currently the kid’s favorite game this week. It was one of the more ‘quiet’ games that Snatcher preferred her to play other than her more adventurous role playing games. But at least she wasn’t playing with the Fire Spirits or getting stuck in a spider web. Even the Dwellers would join in once in a while for fun chasing or being chased.

“Waor! Wao-ah!” Snatcher’s eyes widened as the small girl tripped, landing face first on the ground. Before he could move to do anything, his minions were already there surrounding the small girl.

“ **Oh no! Newbie fell!** ”

“ **Is she alright?! Is she hurt?!** ”

“ **Poor newbie!** ”

“ **Check her for any owies!** ”

The minions helped the small child up, dusting any dirt that might have gotten on her when she fell and checking for any signs of injury. Satisfied that his minions were handling things, Snatcher went back to his book.

It was odd that a ghost would be caring for a child. Much more so a living one. It wasn’t something Snatcher had planned or even wanted. The child simply came into his undead life without warning. He didn’t plan to keep the kid for this long, he had thought of getting rid of her, but he just never found the ~~heart~~ time to do so.

Now he was stuck with a kid he didn’t want in his forest. It wasn’t so bad. His minions tended to do most of the work in keeping the girl entertained and most of them enjoyed playing with her.

“Snatcher!” Hearing his name, he once again peeked over his book down at the small girl looking up at him. Her big blue eyes stared up at him, holding up one of her ribbons. Ah. Her ribbon fell out.

He sighed, setting the book aside and picked up the small girl in his hands. There was one thing that the girl refused anyone to touch and that was her hair. Aside from Snatcher, she never let any of the minions touch it, claiming that they pulled too hard or it wasn’t pretty enough.

Mostly Snatcher had a feeling she only wanted him to do it since he had fingers. And she liked being near him for some reason. “ **There.** ” He smiled at his work, finished the ribbon into a bow at the end. “ **Now don’t try to mess it up.** ”

Once Snatcher had set her on the ground, the child turned around and blew a kiss at him. He merely rolled his eyes and went back to his book. Giggling, she turned around and started chasing the minions again. “Waor! Waor!”

“ **OH NO SHE’S BACK! AAAAAAH!** ” And with that, the game continued.

It was a peaceful day in Subcon. A typical, normal day.

“ _Aw~! She’s so cute~!_ ”

Until Snatcher got an unsuspecting visit. The ghost nearly jumped in surprise, whirling around to come face to face with the last person he wanted to see today. “ ** _Moonjumper!_** ”

“ _The same._ ” The corpse giggled. “ _You seem a little jumpy today Snatcher. Did I manage to catch you off guard?_ ” Moonjumper poked the shadow’s cheek, which was slapped away rather harshly.

“ ** _Don’t._ Touch me. Shouldn’t you be up in the sky keeping a lookout?**”

“ _I was. But then I spotted my little niece playing with your minions!_ ”

“ **She’s not your niece.** ” Snatcher said in a deadpanned tone.

“ _Then why do you keep her?_ ”

“ ** _Because there was no way to get rid of her._** ” Snatcher growled. “ **I’ve told you this _hundreds_ of times! I’m only keeping her now because she may be some use to me when she gets older.** ”

Moonjumper frowned. “ _Well that’s not very nice. If you wanted to have some servants, you could at least force some intruders to do your bidding. That is what you normally do._ ” Snatcher glared at him. “ _And what use would you have of her when she got older?_ ”

“ **Probably some task that might pop up in the near future that I need her to fix.** ” Snatcher scoffed. “ **The only thing I care about is my forest. Whatever happens to her is none of my concern.** ”

“Got you!” The girl shouted, catching Snatcher and Moonjumper off guard. They glanced at the child, spotting her hugging one of the minions from behind.

“ **Oh no! You got me!** ” The minion playfully whined, placing a hand on top their head. “ **Oh woe is me! She got me! Woe is me!** ”

Snatcher frowned as most of the other minions shook their heads or groaned. “… Oh.” The child let the minion go from the hug, running over to a different minion and hugged them. “Got you!”

“ **HEY!** ”

“ **Sorry dude.** ” The minion shrugged, patting the child on the back.

Moonjumper chuckled lightly. “ _The child certainly knows which minions are her favorite._ ” His voice caught the attention of the minions and child.

“MOONY!” The girl squealed with delight, letting the minion go and running up to the corpse, holding her arms up.

“ _Why hello little star! How’s my favorite niece?_ ” Moonjumper picked the child up, holding her to his eye level.

“ **She’s not your niece!** ”

“ _Everyone says otherwise!_ ” Moonjumper stuck his tongue out at Snatcher. “ _Look how big you’ve gotten! I only see you at a distance but I swear you’ve gotten taller! How old are you now sweetie?_ ”

“I’m thr—” The child started before stopping, holding her hand up with three fingers. “… FOUR!” She finally said, holding up another finger and making Moonjumper and a few minions swoon over her cuteness.

“ _So CUUUTE~ Now, what would my niece like from uncle Moonjumper? Dancing dolls? A puppet theater? Story time?_ ”

“ **HEY! Story time is MY job mister!** ”

“Dolls! Dolls!” The girl chanted, making Moonjumper laugh.

“ _Dancing dolls it is then! And after that we can play some games and have some snacks and watch the stars and—_ ”

“ **Annnnd now it’s her bedtime.** ” Snatcher plucked the child from Moonjumper’s hands, heading off towards his tree home.

“Nooo! Not bedtime Snatcher!” The girl whined.

“ _Yes. It’s certainly not the child’s bedtime. That’s not for another hour!_ ” Moonjumper followed after the pair much to Snatcher’s dismay. “ _You can’t send my niece to bed just because I wanted to play with her! You’re being utterly rude! And not to mention messing with the child’s sleeping schedule._ ”

“ **She’ll be _FINE_. And let’s not forget how you kept her up nearly the whole night into the morning that one time.** ”

“ _IT WAS JUST ONE TIIIME!_ ” Moonjumper whined, making the young girl giggle.

“Moony funny!”

“ ** _Moony_ has to go bye bye now kid. He needs to be at his post, _like he should be._** ”

“ _Oh you’re no fun._ ” Moonjumper huffed with his hands on his hips.

“ **No. I’m just cautious. I don’t want intruders scampering about in my—** ”

“ _Our._ ”

“ **In _MY_ forest. I only have room for _one_ living being and that’s all.** ” The girl looked to Snatcher with confusion on her face.

“What’s scamping?”

“ ** _Scampering_ in when you run in quick light steps all around the place kiddo. You do that with the minions all the time.**”

“I do?”

“ _You sure do! Like a little bunny~_ ” Moonjumper peered over Snatcher’s shoulder, getting shoved away by the shadow.

“ **Post. NOW. And you. Bed.** ” This earned a loud groan of complaint from the two. “ **None of that now! What I say, goes.** ”

“ _Fine. Have it your way then._ ” Moonjumper huffed, turning to leave. “ _But you don’t need to be so pushy about it._ ”

Snatcher glared at the corpse a bit before he felt small tugs on his mane. “ **What is it kiddo?** ”

“Why you hate Moony?” The child asked, staring up at the ghostly shadow with her big blue eyes.

“ **I don’t hate him kid. I _despise_ him.** ” Snatcher growled before shaking his head and sighing. “ **It’s… an adult business kid. I’ll tell you more about it when you get older.** ” The child huffed, pressing her face against his chest so deep that the lower part of her face was obscured and only her unhappy eyes were visible. This made Snatcher smirk a little. “ **Heh. Alright kid. How about a story before you go to bed, hm?** ”

The mention of a story instantly perked the young girl up. “Yeah! Story! Story! I want story!”

“ **Alright, settle down. Settle down.** ” Snatcher chuckled. “ **How about a story with…** ” He hummed, thinking up a story to tell the child. “ **Wiith knights. And a dragon?** ”

The child gasped with excitement. She loved stories with dragons in them! It was always funny when the dragon burned the knights stinky butts! “Yeah! Yeah! Dragons! Lots a dragons!”

“ **And some magic?** ”

“Yes!”

“ **And some daring adventure?** ”

“ _Yes Yes Yes!_ ”

“ _And cute little princesses?_ ”

“ **Oh don’t be silly. We don’t add princesses in our stor—WHAT ARE YOU DOING BACK HERE?!** ”

Moonjumper frowned. “ _I would put a princess in a story._ ”

“ **GET. BACK. TO. YOUR. POST.** ” Snatcher growled through gritting teeth.

“ _Not until you promise to—URK!_ ”

“ **POST. _NOW._** ” Snatcher tightened his grip around Moonjumper’s neck. “ **Or else I’m going to break that neck of yours you little—** ” He stopped short, looking at the small child in his arms. “ **… uh, meanie. Yeah let’s just go with that.** ”

“No! No hurt uncle Snatcher!”

“ **Okay, kid, we really need to work on your sentences.** ” Snatcher let Moonjumper’s throat go, turning his focus back on the child. “ **And on that matter we really should start teaching you about the basics and learn some astronomy and—** ”

“ _Boats?_ ”

“ ** _Noo._ That would be _ridiculous_.** ”

“ _Oh. Well that’s a shame._ ” Moonjumper rubbed his neck, hoping that he wouldn’t find any marks left behind later. “ _Because I saw some ships that were nearing along the coast line of the forest that looked interesting enough to study._ ”

“ **Well the kid isn’t going to le—I beg your pardon?** ”

“ _There are ships coming at the coast line of the forest. BIG ones._ ”

A cold pit formed in Snatcher, gripping the child closer to his chest.

“Snatcher?”

“ **Sorry kiddo. Story time will have to wait.** ” Snatcher hurried to the tree, Moonjumper following behind in pace with him. “ **Snatcher has to go somewhere really quick and check it out.** ”

“But story!” The child whined as she was placed on her bed. “And dragons!”

“ **Kiddo, I promise when I come back, I tell you a story.** ” Snatcher started to pull away, but the child quickly grabbed his hand.

“No go! Snatcher needs to tell story!”

“ **I will! When I get back kid. I just need to make sure that—** ” He stopped, looking at Moonjumper. The corpse only shrugged. He didn’t know how to help at the moment. “ **Okay, look, kid.** ” Snatcher sighed, turning back to the small girl. “ **How about when I get back, I’ll tell you an extra story? Hm? Would you like that?** ”

The child looked into the shadow’s eyes. She liked Snatcher’s stories. They were always funny and cool. But she really didn’t want him to go either. She didn’t like sleeping without Snatcher there. But an extra story…

Snatcher could almost chuckle at the cute look on the child’s face as she tried to decide what she wanted, though he wished she would hurry up soon. The longer she took, the more he worried about those ships getting closer.

“ _Snatcher._ ” Moonjumper was a little more impatient, clenching and unclenching his hands on his arms, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

“ **I’ll be there just hold on.** ” Snatcher shot back before looking at the child. “ **Well kiddo?** ”

The young girl really didn’t want Snatcher to go, but the idea of an extra story was very tempting. Finally with her mind made up, she let Snatcher’s hand go with a pout. “Back soon?”

“ **I’ll be gone and back before you know it kid.** ” Snatcher promised, floating out the tree. “ **Just stay in the tree and wait there! Smell ya later!** ”

“ _Do you really think she’ll stay there when we get back?_ ” Moonjumper asked as the pair took to the sky.

“ **Of course not. Why do you think I have minions stationed around there in the first place?** ” Snatcher huffed, breaking through the trees to the sky above Subcon.

“ _I knew they were placed there for a reason._ ” Moonjumper mused.

“ **Alright, enough chitchat! Where are those ships you mentioned?** ”

Moonjumper pointed to where the forest met the sea, out in a distance where a pair of large ships were sailing. Snatcher summoned a telescope, looking through it and frowned deeply.

“ _Well? Is it a false alarm? Or are we going to have some company?_ ”

Snatcher was quiet a moment, studying the ships carefully.

“ _Snatcher?_ ”

The shadow huffed, squishing the telescope between his hands which then evaporated into nothing. “ **Looks like we have far away visitors coming to pay a visit.** ”

“ _Imperials? Monarchs? Pirates?_ ”

“ **More along the lines of travelers sent out by a sovereign.** ” Snatcher crossed his arms, not liking this one bit. “ **They seem to look like they’re on an expedition.** ”

“ _Well that doesn’t seem so—_ ”

“ **An expedition for take over.** ”

Moonjumper frowned, looking out at the ships that were sailing closer and closer to the forest. “ _… Really?_ ”

“ **Well if cannons, spears, handful of armed knights, and barrels of gun powered is somehow their friendly way of saying hello, they probably haven’t heard of our customs.** ”

“ _What if the cannons are full of confetti?_ ”

“ **Who in their right mind would fill a _cannon_ with _confetti?_** ” Snatcher sighed, pinching his face. “ **You know what? Let’s not dwell on that and focus more on the situation here.** ”

Moonjumper smiled, cracking his fingers one by one. “ _Soo… I take left, you take right?_ ”

A deep smirk crossed Snatcher’s face. “ **Only if you’re willing to lose.** ”

Moonjumper laughed, disappearing in a flash of dark pixels as Snatcher took off diving into the shadows.

~~***~~

She didn’t like waiting. Waiting was boring! And boring was a bad thing like timeouts and eating nasty veggies.

She didn’t like veggies. They tasted yucky! Not like the sweet stuff uncle Moony brought her when Snatcher wasn’t looking. Those were yummy! She wished that Snatcher wasn’t so mean to uncle Moony so much so that he could visit her more often and give her more yummy stuff.

She sighed, flopping over on her stomach on her bed. “It no fair Mr. Floppy Ears. Snatcher promised story. Yet he weft with no story! Oh! Left. Left. Left. Left. Snatcher says I need to pract my words better. Left left left!”

Snatcher told her that she need to work on her words since she was getting to be a big girl. But uncle Moony says she was fine speaking like that.

“He promise _two_ stories when he come back. But when he come back Mr. Floppy Ears!” Mr. Floppy Ears was silent. “Yeah! He take looooooooooooooo—(Deep breath)—ooooooooooong time!”

She rolled over on her back, looking up at Mr. Floppy Ears and giggled seeing him upside down. “Uncle Moony says Snatcher goes on importan stuff. Snatcher goes for very looong time before come back.” She frowned. “Uncle Moony always fun when Snatcher gone. Makes you dance silly! And makes funny shows with you and Puff and Flip!” Her frown deepened. “… but uncle Moony left with Snatcher.”

She sat up, turning around and picking Mr. Floppy Ears up. “They left Mr. Floppy Ears! With no story! Snatcher says to wait, but I want story!” She huffed, looking out the tree. She smiled. “I go to story.” She slid off the bed, walking with Mr. Floppy Ears in her arms to the front of the tree. She peeked out.

Snatcher left minions behind to watch her when he left. He didn’t like it when she left the tree on her own. Something about it being bad? She didn’t know. And didn’t really care.

She smiled when she looked to the right and saw the funny fire foxes dancing around the fire. Snatcher didn’t like the fire foxes, but he kept these foxes next to the tree. Saying he needed them for a wall? But why? All they did was dance around a fire and Snatcher didn’t like it when she got close to them.

She would play with them later. She needed to find Snatcher and get her stories first. Climbing out of the tree and walking slowly down the root to the land, she started on her way to find Snatcher.

“ ** _Newbie’s out of the tree!_** ” She froze, stopping in place as four minions popped out of nowhere and surrounded her.

“ **Newbie! What are you doing?** ”

“ **Boss said you needed to stay in the tree.** ”

“ **Yeah! You need to stay inside the tree till he gets back!** ”

“ **He won’t be happy if he catches you out of the tree.** ”

She huffed, hugging Mr. Floppy Ears closer. “He left! No story!”

The minions looked at each other. “ **Story?** ”

“ **Is she talking about her bedtime stories?** ”

“ **Boss does like to tell her stories.** ”

“He left! No story!”

“ **Newbie, calm down. I’m sure boss will be back soon to tell you stories.** ”

“No! He left! I go find him for story!” She pushed past the minions, trying to get away from them and find Snatcher, but they blocked her path.

“ **No newbie! Boss doesn’t want you out of the tree when he’s away!** ”

“ **He gets really mad when you don’t listen.** ”

“ **And he doesn’t want you wandering around on your own!** ”

“ **You might get hurt and get owies!** ”

She frowned. She did hate getting owies. They hurt. But she wanted her stories!

“ **Listen. How about _we_ tell you a story?**”

“ ** _What?_** ” Three minions looked at the middle minion in shock but her eyes lit up. A story from a minion _and_ two stories from Snatcher? That was _THREE STORIES!_

“YES! YESYESYESYES! Gimme story!” She hopped up and down, really wanting the story.

“ **Oh _great_. Now you made the newbie want a story from us.** ”

“ **What? There’s nothing wrong giving the newbie a story.** ”

“ ** _Nothing wrong?!_ Do you not _know_ how the boss gets when someone other than him tells the newbie stories?!** ”

“ **The last time Moonjumper told her a story, boss was livid for WEEKS!** ”

“ **Not to mention that the boss made it _very clear_ that he doesn’t want other people telling the newbie stories!** ”

“Story?”

“ **Sorry newbie. You’re not getting a story.** ”

“… no… story?” Her lip trembled. No… story? She wasn’t getting a… story? But. But she _liked_ stories! Why wasn’t she getting a story?!

“ **… Ooooh no.** ”

“ **NO! Don’t cry newbie!** ”

“ **Please don’t cry!** ”

“ **Y-yeah! Don’t cry! You don’t need to cry!** ”

“Story…” Her eyes were getting watery. All she wanted was a story.

“ **OKAY! OKAY! We’ll tell you a story!** ”

“ **YEAH! We’ll tell you a GREAT story!** ”

“ **A really really great story!** ”

“ **You’ll be begging to hear it again!** ”

“… weally?” She wiped her eye.

“ **Yes! It’ll be a story you will remember forever!** ”

She smiled. That sounded great! “Tell! Tell!”

“ **O-okay, uh, um. O-Once upon a time in a village, uh, far, FAR away—** ”

“ **—there were four bestest buddies in the whole wide world!** ”

“ **Who really liked to get into mischief a lot—** ”

“ **—because they wanted to have fun!** ”

“ **And these buddies got into a LOT of trouble—** ”

“ **—TONS of trouble!** ”

“ ** _Very_ big trouble.**”

“ **Well. You guys did.** ”

Three minions turned the heads at the minion.

“ **… what? It’s the truth. You guys always got into trouble.** ”

“ ** _YOU_ got into trouble too!** ”

“ **Only because you dragged me along!** ”

“ **Oh Yeah? What about that time you tried to steal a pie?** ”

“ **You guys made me do it!** ”

“ **No way!** ”

“ **Nuh-uh!** ”

“ **You did it by yourself dude!** ”

“ **No I didn’t.** ”

“ **Yes you did.** ”

“ **No I didn’t.** ”

“ **Yes you did.** ”

“ **No I _didn’t_.** ”

“ **Yes you _did_.** ”

“ **No I didn’t!** ”

“ **Yes you did!** ”

“ **No I DIDN’T!** ”

“ **YES YOU DID!** ”

“ **NO I _DIDN’T_!** ” The minion jumped on the minion next to them, slapping them and tumbling around on the ground. The other two minions jumped on top of them and then proceeded to fight.

She… was confused. Did he steal the pie or not?

She wanted to know, but Snatcher always told her that she shouldn’t get close to minions that were roughhousing or she would get owies. Thinking of Snatcher reminded her of way she was out of the tree. She needed to find him and get her story!

She couldn’t go forward since she wasn’t allowed near roughhousing minions and she couldn’t go to the swampy part of the forest. She gazed towards the fiery part of the forest. Snatcher always said that she could visit there someday when she was older. She was older now! She could go in there and find Snatcher!

The only thing standing between her and the fiery forest was a fence, but that was easy! She just crawled under it and came out the other side. The minions were still fighting, so they wouldn’t be busy watching her as she made her way inside the burny, fiery, hot part of the forest all on her own.

She was such a smart kid!

~~***~~

“There it is. Subcon Forest. A real nasty work if you ask me.”

“So that’s what it looks like. I always imagined it to be creepy. But not this creepy.”

“Did you ever imagined trying to invade it?”

“Not really…” The young soldier frowned, looking at the helmet in his hands. “Why _are_ we invading? Subcon really hasn’t given us a reason to invade them before.”

“Ba! Who knows?” His companion leaned against the side, staring out at the large forest they were heading to. “King probably wants more land or resources or something. Can’t really tell with him. His advisor might have an idea, but he probably won’t tell any of us lowly peasants.”

“Still, don’t you think it’s odd?”

“About what?”

“No one has ever come out of Subcon over hundreds of years, right?”

“So they say.”

“Are we even sure there’s anyone living in that forest?”

“ **Living? Pfft. Sure are.** ” The two soldiers turned to the third knight who was leaning his back against the railing that had joined them. “ **I’ve heard that there was at least one living person spotted living in that forest. People just assume everyone else is just too shy to come out of that forest to say hi.** ”

“I wonder why.”

“Probably because of that old legend about the crazy king and the mask.”

“ **Old legend? What’s that?** ”

“You haven’t heard of it?”

“You’ve got to be kidding. No one hasn’t heard of the old legend about this place!”

“ **I know of a mask and the king.** ”

“So, you _had_ heard of it.”

“ **Probably. I do tend to hear a lot of stuff now and then and different versions of any story.** ”

“Then you should know about the old legend about how an old king used an evil mask to control his kingdom and how he used it for evil deeds and wicked tasks against the different nations before the rose up against him!”

“ **I heard he used it to separate his kingdom from the rest of the world.** ”

“Yeah, I heard that too. The nations had such a big army that the crazy king used his mask to push the lands far away, breaking them into islands that made new kingdoms! The mask has crazy power!”

“Get real. The mask isn’t really real. And neither was the king. Subcon’s residents are probably just too cowardly to show their faces or reach out to anyone. Guess seeing two ships ready for battle will wake them up from their illusion of a peaceful dream to the harsh reality of the world when we dock.”

“I’m pretty sure someone should have seen us by now.” The young knight glance at the second ship sailing beside them. “I mean, two big ships coming from a different land armed to the teeth just to invade. That really not the best welcoming party I know.”

“ **You’re right. It isn’t. I’m pretty sure Subcon’s residents wouldn’t be too happy about it either! Especially the Snatcher!** ”

“… who?”

“ **… You’re kidding.** ”

“No. Who is the ‘ _Snatcher_ ’?”

“That’s an odd name to give someone at birth.”

“ ** _Oh for the love of!_ The SNATCHER! Ghostly being?! Stealer of souls?! The living _shadow!_** ”

“OH! You mean HIM!”

“Oh yeah! Yeah! I know him!”

“Yeah, heard a lot about him!”

“Yeah a really spooky guy. Don’t want to run into him on a dark night.”

“ **…** ”

“…”

“…”

“ **… you have no idea who I’m talking about.** ”

“Nnnope!”

“Sorry.”

“Who would call themselves the Snatcher? That’s ridiculous!”

“Besides, there’s no such thing as living shadows.”

“Or ghosts. Ghosts are pretty dumb.”

“Yeah, I used to be afraid of them when I was a kid but now? Not so much.”

“When you get older, you start realizing how dumb things are now that you know things better.”

“Ghosts are pretty dumb.”

“Yep. Not even the brightest. I mean, what _can_ a ghost do? Float? Yeah, really scary.”

“I obviously don’t believe in ghosts at this point. I mean have you seen a ghost?”

“No. Have you?”

“Not in my life. Have you?”

“ **… Every… Single… Day.** ”

“Okay you’re obviously lying. There’s no way you could ever have seen a ghost every day.”

“Yeah, also, what’s up with your voice?”

“ **… _PECK IT._** ”

“Wh—” The young knight started before the knight they were talking to evaporated and a large shadowy being stood over them, glaring with deep anger.

“ **DUMB? YOU WANT TO SEE DUMB? WELL, _TOO BAD!_** ”

The knight coward in fear, staring up at the shadowy being that was towering over them.

“ ** _YOU GET THE NOT SO NICE GHOST._** ”

With that, the shadow lunged at them and attacked the ship. It was an uproar in that moment as soldiers were blasted and had their souls ripped out of their bodies, not even noticing the second ship being attacked by their own enemy with red strings.

~~***~~

She was a smart girl.

Snatcher told her that often when she did something new. Like when she climbed a tree without help. Or when she played hide and seek with him and hid with all the other minions so he wouldn’t find her. Or the time she painted a picture of her, Snatcher, the minions, Dwellers, and uncle Moony!

Though, uncle Moony was gone from the picture last time she saw it.

Oh well! She could make more paint uncle Moonys later! She needed to find Snatcher and get her stories!

… but, where was he?

She looked around, turning to find the familiar shadowy being. He wasn’t anywhere nearby, and she couldn’t see very far between the trees.

Maybe he wasn’t here? But he wasn’t here, then where was he? Uncle Moony said that the forest was a big place. Maybe he was deeper in?

“Snatcher is hard to find Mr. Floppy Ears. I no see him in this forest.” She hugged Mr. Floppy Ears closely. “I no give up! I want story! Find Snatcher and get story!”

She huffed, continuing on her path to find Snatcher and get her story!

“We’re going the wrong way!”

“No we are not!”

She stopped. Did she hear voices?

“Yes we are! We’re supposed to be at the tower!”

“And we’re getting there!”

“Does this looking anything like a tower?!”

“We would be getting there sooner if you would just _shut up_ and follow me!”

“You don’t even know where we are!”

She looked around, but couldn’t see anybody. Where was the voices coming from?

“Well we’re somewhere in the forest heading towards one of the towers.”

“That’s not comforting at all!”

“Hello?” She called out, looking for the voices. “Is anybody there?” Something flew past her ear, making her jump and let out a squeak of fear.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU IDIOT?!”

“I was just defending myself!”

“AGAINST A CHILD?! REALLY?!”

“It could be a ghost disguised as a child!”

“You are such an idiot Naon!”

She hugged Mr. Floppy Ears tightly. These voices were loud. Loud like when Snatcher got angry. And when Snatcher was angry he got scary. And she didn’t like scary things. Scary things were bad. Uncle Moony always told her to hide at the tree when bad scary things appeared.

“Oh! Wait! Don’t go!”

“Maka! Don’t go down there!”

She looked up, spotting something jumping out of the trees and land in front of her. She froze up. This didn’t look like a minion or a Dweller. She whimpered, backing away from this new thing.

~~***~~

“No no no no! Don’t be scared! I’m not going to hurt you.” Maka softly spoke. “Did Naon scare you?”

“I didn’t scare anyone! That’s a ghost Maka!”

“She is not a ghost!” Maka shouted up in the tree Naon was still hiding up in. She turned back to the child, smiling softly. “Don’t listen to that big meanie. He’s just being paranoid.”

The little girl clutched her doll close to her chest, her wide big blue eyes staring up at her with fear in them. “w… what’s par… par… parnod?”

Maka’s smile widened, kneeling down so she was smaller so not to spook that child. “Paranoid means that he’s scared and jumpy. Like a big old scaredy cat.”

“HEY! I am NOT a scaredy cat!”

Maka shot a frown over her shoulder before looking back at the scared child before her. “What are you doing in this forest sweetie? Are you lost?”

The child was silent for a moment before nodding her head.

“Are you trying to find something?”

The child nodded again.

“We’re trying to find something too. And we got lost too.”

“Again! We’re not lost! Just off track!”

Maka frowned, turning to look behind her as her partner jumped down from the tree. “That’s the same difference Naon!”

“Look, we’re not going to get anywhere talking to some ghost disguised as a little kid!”

“She’s not a ghost!”

“You don’t know that!” She looked back the child, finding her backing away with fear on her face. “Oh. Oh no, don’t cry sweetie! We’re just being angry at each other.” She knelt down in front of the child, rubbing her head gently. “My name is Maka and he’s Naon.”

“Don’t tell it our names.” Naon whined.

“What’s your name?”

The child fiddled with her doll, drawing a circle in the ground. “… kiddo.”

Maka frowned. “N-no. I mean your name. What do your parents call you?”

The child blinked, tilting her head. “What’s parents?”

Her frown deepened. “… your mommy and daddy.”

“I no have mommy and daddy!”

Maka felt her heart stop a moment.

“Whoa whoa whoa. Back up! How can you not know what a mommy and daddy is? Or have any?” Naon stepped forward, making the little girl back away. “Someone has to be taking care of you! You got clothes on and you don’t look to be starving.”

Maka looked at the child carefully. Naon was right. The child did appear to be healthy. But she did question the clothes. Purple raggy clothing with a matching poncho. The only thing that wasn’t colored purple was the two pink bows in her brown hair that were kept in two tiny pigtails.

“Don’t you have any siblings? A cousin? An aunt or an uncle?”

“Uncle? I have uncle!”

“You do?” Maka asked.

“Yeah! Yeah! Uncle Moony! He fun uncle!”

“And where is uncle Moony?”

“He over…” The child glanced around, her smile slowly looking around the forest. “He over… over…”

“… Are you lost little one?”

“Obviously.”

“Shut it Naon.”

The child looked back at her. “Uncle Moony no here.”

“I see. Well, how about I help you find uncle Moony then?”

The child’s face lit up brightly. “Really?!”

“Maka! You can’t just abandon the mission!”

“You can go ahead if you want to Naon. I’m not letting this child get lost any further.” She picked the child up, carefully sitting her on her hip.

“It could be a trap!”

“Would a ghost really go as far as to disguise themselves as a human being?”

“Master won’t like this.”

“I wouldn’t like what?”

Maka and Naon jumped. They quickly turned to the voice. “Master!”

There standing before them was Master. Deep black cloak with his special mask on his face, eye boring at them with unamusement before looking at the child in Maka’s arms. “Why is there a child in your arms Maka? I don’t recall you bring one for this important mission.”

“We just found this child here sir.”

“It’s a ghost in disguise! I keep telling her but she won’t—”

“The child is not a ghost Naon. A ghost would need considerable amounts of energy to make a disguise this convincing and hold it for this long.” The Master spoke, cutting off Naon and walking up to Maka.

The young girl eyed him warily, hiding part of her face against Maka’s chest.

“Hello child. How are you?” The child let out a small squeak of fear, hiding her face more from the Master. “Shy aren’t we? Do you have a name?” The child shook her head. “Really? Now that can’t be right. You must have a name now, don’t you?”

“Master. We don’t have time for this. The longer we stand around here, more the more time we waste.”

The Master was silent, contemplating Naon words. He was right, in a sense. The more they focused on this random child, the more they were getting off track of their mission. The ship were likely being attacked by now, so it was only a matter of time getting to the tower.

“… Very well. We’ll worry about the child later.”

“But sir—”

“You may bring the child if you wish Maka. But we must focus on our task first.”

“… yes sir.”

“Good. Now I believe the tower is this way. Keep close. Especially you Naon.”

“Oh come on! I wasn’t lost!”

~~***~~

Moonjumper hummed, marveling at his handy work with glee. The boat was practically destroyed, with bits and pieces floating on the waves along with bodies of soldiers. He didn’t exactly know what he was going to do with this boat, but he figured he could take some of it apart and make it in a smaller boat for his little niece to play with.

His smile broadened. Thinking of his little niece with a pirate hat on her little head with a wooden sword in her tiny hands was a cute thought. One that needed to come to fruition.

“ **Whelp. I’m done on my end.** ” Snatcher floated over to him, a few souls in hand. “ **Could have gone better than I wanted to. So how’s your ship fairing?** ”

“ _Better than yours I suppose._ ” Moonjumper cast a quick glance at Snatcher’s ship, which was nothing else than a few scraps on fire quickly sinking to the sea. “ _You really have a dramatic for flair in your attacks._ ”

“ **Please. I could have done better.** ” Snatcher shrugged, shoving the souls in his mouth and swallowing them whole. The action made Moonjumper cringed, finding the act rather gruesome and inhumane. “ **Don’t give me that look. You used to do it too.** ” Snatcher licked his finger.

“ _That was before I knew what I was doing was wrong._ ”

“ **Whatever. You’re missing out on a good meal here.** ” Snatcher shrugged, heading off towards the forest. “ **Anyway, I better get back to the kid. No doubt she’s trying to escape to get her stories.** ”

“ _Or you._ ” Moonjumper followed after him. “ _She’s really attached to you you know._ ”

Snatcher scoffed. “ **Please. She only likes me because I tell her stories and put bows in her hair. Between the two of us she prefers you over me more.** ”

“ _Ouch. That must be hard to admit._ ”

“ **DON’T PUSH IT. I still don’t like you hanging around the kid. You’re a bad influence on her!** ”

“I’m _a bad influence? Mister, you do realize that you hardly are even a better role model for her than I._ ”

“ **Like what?** ”

“ _Well for starters, who keeps taking their eyes off her often?_ ”

“ **I have to patrol my forest mister! And besides, the minions keep an eye on her for me.** ”

“ _Who keeps forgetting that she’s afraid of the dark?_ ”

“ **The whole _forest_ is dark! You can’t blame me for that!** ”

“ _Who keeps on getting her into trouble with spiders?_ ”

“ **For the record, you’re half of the blame there.** ”

“ _And let’s not forget that one incident with the Fire Spirits and the swa—_ ”

“ **OKAY! I GET ALREADY!** ”

Moonjumper smirked.

“ **But let’s also look at the fact that _you_ don’t tend to have the best intentions for the kid either.** ”

His smirk quickly fell into a frown. “ _What? Don’t be absurd! I have the best intentions for her health and life!_ ”

“ **You keep giving her sweets for _food_. She’s going to get fat before she reaches the age of ten!** ”

Moonjumper sputtered. “ _She is not going to get fat! And there’s nothing wrong with giving her sweets!_ ”

“ **All she ever wants to eat are sweets! And further more—** ” Snatcher suddenly froze, putting a hand to his chest.

Moonjumper stopped, eyeing the shadow carefully. “ _Snatcher?_ ”

“ **… something’s wrong with my tower.** ” Snatcher gazed in the direction of a tall tower covered in fire and thick spiky vines. “ **I… I have to check it out.** ” He changed his course, veering away from his original intended path to his tree.

“ _Wh—Wait! Snatcher! What about the child?!_ ”

“ **KEEP AN EYE ON HER!** ” Snatcher shouted over his shoulder before disappearing, leaving the corpse to hover there confused.

He could have gone after the shadow, but for years he dared not to go anywhere near his tower. Snatcher only had two things that Moonjumper knew he was very protective of. First being the forest and its inhabitants. Second being his tower. He didn’t know why Snatcher was so protective of it. No amount of poking or asking ever got him to open up about it.

And it wasn’t a good idea to go anywhere near it since last time he did, he ended up with broken bones and deep scars. Since then, he had lost any interest to go anywhere near there. But, what exactly was going on over there that would draw Snatcher’s attention? He could follow to find out.

… Ooor.

His eyes landed on the tree with a giant vine wrapped around it in the distance, smiling widely. Maybe he could take this little chance to spend some time with his niece after all.

~~***~~

Cold.

She wasn’t used to cold. Snatcher always made sure she stayed warm wrapped up in blankies and uncle Moony gave her funny looking mud water that tasted great. But Snatcher wouldn’t let her make mud water. Something about it not being mud?

She shivered, snuggling against the nice lady. What was her name again? Maka? Yes that sounded right. Maka was a nice lady. Even if she wore dark clothing and a funny mask on her face like the other two. The mask reminded her of the ghosties that were in the forest and love to funny moves and chase her in Monster Chasing. And they had pretty colors.

“Are you cold, little one?”

She looked up at the nice lady, nodding her head.

“It’ll be alright. Soon we’ll reach the tower and be out of the cold.”

She smiled, nuzzling the nice lady. She was so nice! She never met someone as nice as her. Well, uncle Moony was nice too. But he didn’t count!

“Maka. Come take a look.” The loud one called out.

She didn’t like the loud one. He was mean, and loud, and stupid. So he gets no name. Mr. Floppy Ears said so.

“What is it?” The nice lady went up to them. “… oh.”

Why was the nice lady suddenly quiet? She looked to where the nice lady was looking. Her mouth fell open in shock as she gazed up the big tower that was in front of them.

“… big.”

~~***~~

“ _WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE GOT PAST YOU?! YOU FOUR WERE IN CHARGE OF WATCHING OVER HER AND YET YOU’RE TELLING ME YOU_ LOST _HER?!_ ”

The four minions cringed, looking at the ground in disappointment.

Moonjumper growled, facepalming with one hand and clenching his other tightly. “ _One. Job. You four had. One. Simple. Job. And you botched it up! Not only were so preoccupied with fighting over some petty squabble, you also managed to lose **my niece?!**_ ”

“ **We didn’t know she would wander off when we were fighting.** ”

“ _IT DOESN’T MATTER! My little niece is out there on her own and you four have done nothing but argue instead of searching for her! How does Snatcher deal with you IDIOTS?!_ ” Moonjumper huffed. “ _… Now is not the time to be yelling at you. I need to find my little niece before she gets hurt._ ”

“ **We’ll hel—** ”

“ ** _NO!_** ” Moonjumper roared, causing the four to cower in fear. “ ** _Absolutely not! You four will be nothing but trouble! You couldn’t keep an eye on her and when I come back there will be consequences to your actions!_** ”

The minions trembled as he left to go look for the small child.

~~***~~

“This tower seems bigger on the inside. It feels like we’ve been climbing forever.” Naon said, glancing down the side of the stairs they were ascending. Kicking a small pebble, he watched as it fell. When it disappeared and he couldn’t hear it land, he chuckled nervously. “Yikes. Don’t think anyone would survive a fall like that.”

“It does feel like this place is going on forever.” Maka agreed. “This place doesn’t feel normal. Almost like we’re in a different place. Yet… not.”

“Then it must mean we are on the right track.” The Master gazed upwards. “But luck would have it, we do not have far to go now.”

“Thank goodness! I was getting tired of walking up these steps.”

“Don’t be hasty Naon. This is only minion to what we have to do now.” The Master stopped at the top of the stairs, looking about the small stone bare room. Icicles hung from the ceiling and covered the floor, jutting out like swords that were placed about with no meaning.

The Master gazed intently at the ice, feeling dark power radiating off it. Just the same as the power radiating below them deep underground.

“Ice!”

“Yes child. This whole place is covered in ice. Be careful and don’t slip.” The Master gazed over as Maka led the child up the stairs, making sure she didn’t slip or step on any ice patches. Naon was right behind them, keeping an eye on the child and the ground.

“Hurry up. The item we seek is near.” The Master turned his focus to one side of the room that was covered in thick ice. Calmly, he walked over to it, taking out a small vial and opening it. Tipping it over, drops of green liquid landed on the ice. Once the liquid touched the ice, it began to crack and melt. Satisfied, he put the small vial away, waiting for the ice to melt away.

“Made it!” The child cheered as she hopped up the last step.

“Yes you did! Good job!” Maka cheered, clapping her hands as the child did a little twirl.

The Master couldn’t help but smile a little behind his mask at the child’s antics. Such a young mind and innocent of the world around her. He always envied that of young children.

“Come. Our path is almost at an end.” The Master beckoned his group to follow, heading up the wet stairs to a trap door. It took some force for it to move before it opened, letting a full blast of cold air seep in. Stepping out into the cold, The Master gazed around, his eyes landing on the center of the room where a single pedestal stood.

It looked harmless enough, but it was the box that sat on top that The Master was after. The deep thick chains made of magic wrapped around it intrigued him to step closer and inspect it. It was there, just in reach, yet so far away out of touch.

Naon poked his head out, spying the pedestal and the box. “Whoa. So it really is here.” He said with slight awe, stepping up on the floor with Maka not far behind him with the child.

“Yes. But we must be quick now. We cannot dawdle now.”

Maka eyed the box, feeling the power coming off it. “It feels… suffocating.” She clutched a hand to her chest, pulling the child close to her leg.

The child looked between the box and everyone, confusion written on her face. “What that?”

“That, child, is a powerful artifact. The very reason we are here.” The Master stepped closer to the pedestal, yet dared not to get too close to it. “With this our troubles will be far behind us and the kingdom.”

Naon nodded his head, stepping forward next to The Master. “Well, best we get this done now. The weather certainly isn’t being nice to us.”

~~***~~

Moonjumper was panicking.

Not only was his niece gone, but he had no clue to where to look for her. The village was out of the question for searching. The minions living there would have brought her back to the tree. She couldn’t have gotten into the swamp. The Fire Spirits were still there and barrier was still up. So that only left the burning part of the forest.

Still not an ideal safe place for a child, yet Snatcher didn’t put any barrier or wall to prevent a small child from wandering inside like he did with the swamp and ruins. He would have a strong talk with him later once he found his niece.

Right now he was more worried that the young girl would burn herself or have a run in with spiders or, even worse yet, one of Vanessa’s living ice statues. He would never forgive himself if something happened to the child and he wasn’t there protecting her.

Just as he was looking in one of the tree houses, he felt a thrum of power. His flying faltered for a slight moment before he caught himself.

“ _What the-?!_ ”

Surprised and shocked, he turned to where the wave of power came from. The tower. The one covered in ice. He could feel it pulsing with dark energy, even from the great distance he was at.

 _Someone was at the tower_.

His first thought was to rush over and see what was going on, but his mind drifted to his niece and worried about her safety. He wanted to find her first, but the tower was just as important. He knew what was there. He knew it had to be guarded.

But at the same time, his worry for his niece bled in.

He had to find her, to make sure she was okay. But he didn’t know how long that would take or if he ever would find her in time before whoever was at the tower was gone.

If he went to the tower first, he could stop whatever was going up there.

But with a cost of potentially losing his niece…

~~***~~

The box pulsed with power like a beating heart, sending wave after wave of dark magic in the air. The air felt colder, fear was emanating, and all anyone could do was stare at it in mixed awe.

The Master, standing closest to the box, gingerly held out a hand, touching the wood with light taps before taking it in his grasp.

“… _WOW_. That was… this is…” Naon started, trying to find the words yet failing to come up with any that could speak what was on his mind. Maka could only numbly nod her head, having no power to speak or take her eyes off the box.

The one who was greatly effected however, was the small girl pressed against the stone pillar with her doll clutched tightly to her chest. No one in the room could feel the power so great such as she did. Her eyes were wide, her heart rate going up to concerning rates, and cold pit of fear was overtaking her. But that wasn’t all she felt.

She could feel something. Something bad and wrong coming from the box. Something that made her feel small, helpless, and scared.

Maka took notice of the child’s distress, slowly moving towards her as her limbs felt numb and out of place than they normally did.

“… such power.” The Master whispered, feeling the power pulsing through his very core. He never felt such power before. Never in such great volume.

“Master?” Naon quietly called out. The Master was quiet for a moment before shaking his head, turning to Naon.

“We should start heading back now. There’s no doubt that someone felt that power surge and will come check it out. We need to leave. Now.”

“Yes Master. I don’t want to be caught in the cold. It makes my joints ache.” Naon joked, though there was a noticeable lack of any real humor in his tone.

“Come now child. Let’s go.” Maka held her hand out for the child to take, but the young girl’s attention went past her and spying a figure fast approaching the tower.

“UNCLE MOONY!” She cheered, catching the three off guard.

~~***~~

“ _Little star?!_ ” Moonjumper couldn’t believe it as he approached the tower. There was his niece with three dark cloaked figures with masks. One holding the box, and another in front of his niece.

That sight set off warning bells in his head and he charged forward. His magic surged, creating strings that materialized out of thin air and shot forward at the three figures.

To his disappointment, the three evaded his strings, jumping out of the way before they could land their mark. This didn’t stop him so easily. Commanding the strings, they followed after the strangers, making sure to maneuver the strangers away from his niece. He didn’t want them or his stringers accidentally hurting her.

His main objective was to get the box. The power coming from it was bad, and needed to be sealed away again.

“ _Hold still and let my strings grab you!_ ” He growled as, somehow, the three cloaked figures kept getting away from his strings.

Until one grabbed at his string, giving it a mighty tug that surprised Moonjumper at how strong the pull was as he was suddenly pulled down and into the tower, landing in a heap. The fall left his dazed till a burning pain in his back snapped him out of it. With a roar of anger, he leapt up and turned to face his attacker.

Using a bit of his magic, his strings bundled together, weaving into a sword. Grabbing the handle, he swung at his attacker. To his credit, the attacker had thought that the sword was a useless weapon being made out of string, but was quickly proven wrong when they sidestepped away and the sword got nothing but the cloak, leaving a clean cut in it.

Moonjumper grinned, swinging again and again at the figure who evaded his attacks with great skill. He did not get to enjoy the feeling long as he was attacked from the side. Growling, he made another sword and began fight with the three figures in cloaks all at once.

He couldn’t risk going all out. Not with the chance of harming his little niece. His best option was to battle these figures. He knew they would tire out soon. They were still living being after all. He could keep this up forever and snot feel the strain of it.

Raising one sword up, he brought it down fast at one of the figures pinned against a pillar, smiling with glee as they could not get away and only held their arms up for protection. His glee was short lived however as when his sword made contact with the figure’s arms, it bent. Confused, he brought it up close to his face for inspection, wondering why it bent when it was supposed to slash.

He didn’t have long to inspect it however as he was suddenly clocked in the jaw. The punch was powerful enough to send him to the ground, and it was then that he realized how tired he was. But that was impossible! He shouldn’t feel weak!

He then kicked in the gut, slashed at the arms, kicked in the face, and then stabbed through the chest by the three figures, slamming against a pillar and pinned there.

“Uncle Moony!”

Moonjumper weakly cracked open his eyes, spying his little niece. “ _l-little star…_ ” His voice crack, coughing as the sword in his chest was making rather difficult to speak. He wanted to scream at his niece to run, to get help or at least get away from the danger of these strangers.

Unfortunately, his niece decided to run _towards_ him and the three cloaked figures. His heart sank as one figure turned their head towards his niece.

“Uncle Moony?! I knew it! The kid IS a ghost!”

“Naon! No! She’s not a—”

“Can it Maka!” The one known as Naon stepped between him and his niece, stopping her in her tracks and gazing up at the cloaked figure in fear. “I knew it was only a disguise! Its been fooling us this whole time!”

Horror pooled inside Moonjumper as Naon took out a dagger.

“Naon! No! Leave them be! We got what we came for! We must leave now!”

Naon seemed to falter a bit. For a moment, Moonjumper hoped that Naon would leave his young niece alone.

But in one quick motion, Naon swung his arm, hitting his niece and sending her flying to the ground. Anger bubbled in him. Glaring daggers at the Naon as the one known as Maka rushed forward and grabbed Naon.

“Naon stop! Don’t hurt her!”

“Don’t Hurt It?! Do you realize that it set a trap here?! Fooling us with that fake kid disguise?!”

“Ghosts can’t bleed!”

“What?!”

“There’s blood on your knife!” Maka pointed to the dagger. Blood dripped off the steel, landing on the cold ground.

Eyes turned to the child, slowly picking herself up, holding her bleeding cheek in one hand as tears rolled down her face.

Before anyone could move, there was a deep growl. An inhuman growl. One that shook the very core inside Moonjumper.

 _He knew that growl anywhere_.

In a flash, the three cloaked figures were smacked aside by a shadowy appendage. The child was dragged over to him, and Snatcher glared darkly at them, hovering over the child protectively with an arm shielding her.

“ ** _NEVER TOUCH THE KID!_** ”

Moonjumper could almost smirk. He knew he loved her.

“Sna-nat-ch-cher!” The child hiccuped and sniffled, fat big tears falling down her face.

Snatcher cast a quick glance at the girl before turning to Moonjumper with a deep scowl on his face. “ ** _Why_ didn’t you take her someplace safe?!** ” He growled, grabbing the sword and pulling it out.

Moonjumper grunted in pain, rubbing his chest. “ _To be fair, I didn’t get much of a chance to._ ”

Snatcher huffed, patting the child gently on the back as she cried against him. His eyes were trained on the three figures as they picked themselves up. “ **So, mind telling me what you’re all doing here. And more importantly.** ” His eyes landed on the box clutched in one figure’s hands. “ **What you plan to do with _that_.** ”

“None of your business ghost!”

“Naon! Shut up! You’re making things worse!”

Snatcher growled, sending a wave of his own power out. “ ** _Better watch your tongue boy!_** ”

“ _And do please try to think before you speak. Whatever you say next **will** determine your fate._ ”

“It is none of your concern.” The one figure who held the box spoke. “Only know that we have gotten what we came for, and if you may somehow stop us, the others have already gotten the other half we need.”

“ **Oh, they were friends over yours?** ” Snatcher smirked. “ **They made a nice treat when I got there. Though they weren’t much of a fight as I would have liked.** ”

“YOU PECK!” Naon shouted, charging at them. His path was blocked as thick thorny black vines shot out from beneath.

“ **LANGUAGE! There’s a kid here!** ” Snatcher turned to the child, pulling away slightly. “ **Kid, stay here. Snatcher and Moonboy—** ” “ _HEY!_ ” “ **Need to take care of this _real_ quick.** ”

With that, the vines dropped down and the pair lunged out, claws and strings ready for round two.

The child watched as her two guardians battled with the three not so nice people. She pressed up against the pillar, making herself as small as possible. She had never seen Snatcher or uncle Moony like this before. And Snatcher was angry, which made him scary.

She hugged herself, but then realized something was missing. Looking down, she found that Mr. Floppy Ears was missing! Oh no! Looking around, she spotted him near the edge.

Moonjumper was not having an easy time. Naon was proving to be a difficult opponent, blocking his every attack with the small dagger. Snatcher wasn’t faring well either, as it turned out Maka and the third cloaked figure were skilled in the use of magic, blocking and attacking with their own power that counteracted Snatcher’s power.

Things were not looking good. Adding with the fact that Moonjumper was getting weaker and weaker, which was really getting on his nerves. Bring down his swords only to be blocked again by Naon’s dagger. Blood was being smeared on his swords, making his anger flare.

How dare they? How dare they attack his precious little niece?!

Out from the corner of his eye, Moonjumper spotted the on with the box edging away from the battle. It didn’t take a genius to know that they were trying to make a break for it, and that got under Moonjumper’s skin.

Well if he wanted to leave the battle, then he will.

 ** _Permanently_**.

The moment the figure tried to run, the moment he tried to make a break for it, Moonjumper had only enough power to throw a pair of strings at him. One thin for wrapping and grabbing stuff, and the other one thick for moving heavy stuff around. The thin string wrapped around the box, swiping it from his grip, while the thick string slammed in to their chest hard enough to push them over the edge.

But what was meant to be only one victim, another was also taken.

The world slowed down as Moonjumper and Snatcher watched in complete horror as the young girl, innocently picking up her Mr. Floppy Ears, was rammed into and pushed over the edge along with the figure.

Her scream was carried in the wind as she fell from the tall tower, disappearing into the mist far far down below.

“ ** _KID!_** ”

“ ** _LITTLE STAR!_** ”

Moonjumper was kicked in the head, knocking him down. Naon then threw an elongated knife at Snatcher, hitting him in the middle and stunning him. His magic seeped out, draining him till he could no longer move and slumped against a pillar.

Maka and Naon ran to the edge, looking down from the high height. “MASTER!”

“He’s… he’s gone.” Naon slammed his fist on the ground. “He’s gone! Peck! He’s Gone!”

“And the child.”

“Who cares about her?!”

“ _I_ do! She was just a kid Naon!”

“She’s not that important now! We lost Master! How are we supposed to complete the mission now?!”

The two argued, not noticing Moonjumper slowly making his way towards Snatcher. Bit by bit he crawled towards him, eyes focused on the knife embedded in his middle. Once he was close enough, he grabbed hold of the handle, tugging at it. With all his strength left in him, he tugged the knife out of Snatcher, throwing it over the edge.

“Look! We got to focus on the mission! It doesn’t matter that a few kids die along the way!”

“How heartless _are_ you?! How can you just says that with a straight face?!”

“ _I’m_ being reasonable here! We need to take the box and get out of—” A dark shadow cast over them.

They both looked up to see a red eyed Snatcher glaring down at them before he grabbed each of their heads, lifting them up high before smashing their head down hard enough that the ground cracked. Both bodies went limp.

Releasing his grip on them, Snatcher turned to Moonjumper, going over and lifting him up by the collar to glare at him in the eyes. “ ** _WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!_** ”

“ _I… I-I don’t—_ ”

“ ** _YOU SHOVED HER OVER THE EDGE! YOU PUSHED HER OVER!_** ”

“ _I-I didn’t… I didn’t want—_ ”

“ ** _Save it!_** ” Snatcher tossed Moonjumper down. He flew out of the tower, leaving a broken Moonjumper to think about what he had just done.

~~***~~

“ ** _Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasebealright!_** ”

Snatcher had never once been so scared in his life up to now. His yellow eyes scanned the mist, hoping that the young girl had grabbed onto one of large icicles that could have possibly saved her from the fall.

Though that was a very slim chance.

“ ** _Pleasepleasepleaseplease!_** ”

Eyes landed on an icicle, and Snatcher froze. Every part of him felt cold and hallow as he stared in terror at what he saw.

“ **… no…** ”

He shook his head. “ **NO! Kid!** ” Snatcher doved farther down, trying to reason that the red tinted ice wasn’t from the kid.


	3. The Train

The rolling wheels of metal clanking on steel rails was a constant sound that most of the Express Owls were used to hearing. The more quiet and peaceful sounds that were rare to hear on the train. It was so rare that it actually surprised most of the passengers that they had gone this long without a single explosion going off or the conductor’s voice yelling through the speakers since the train left the station.

It was very concerning for the owls.

This wasn’t normal by standers. Usually around this time, the conductor had some movie planed out that would guarantee the endangerment of every passengers lives. But so far nothing had happened yet.

No bombs. No knives. No poor Express Owls running for their lives. No angry yelling.

Nothing.

This honestly put every bird more on edge than ever before. Everyone knew about the train’s conductor, everyone knew he was not the type for just calm train rides. They knew he wasn’t the one for sitting back and relaxing. Or following the rules.

There must be something he was up to today. Something big. And loud. And a hundred percent dangerous!

If it were true that is.

Most of the owls hadn’t noticed it yet, but the train had not stopped moving since it had left the station. The train was passing all the regular stops, not letting anyone on or off, and just kept going. The few that had noticed were slightly alarmed if not confused.

It was clear that the conductor had some place in mind to get to, but not stopping at all the stations? That raised a few bells.

Normally, the first thing that came to mind for the conductor’s odd behavior was the possibility of a movie in the making. The conductor had a long streak for making movies the centered or had some mention of the Owl Express in them. There was probably not a single movie that didn’t have at least one or two scenes of the train in them.

But if any of them had noticed something off about today, if any one of the passengers had taken the time to look around and observe their surroundings, if _anyone_ had noticed that there was something new about the train this very day, it would probably make sense to what was going on today.

The Owl Express was rightly named so since all its passengers were, well, owls. Today however, there was one passenger who was not an owl. The passenger was a human, dressed in a fine dark suit, seated next to a window while calmly reading a newspaper. The man looked young, around his twenties if anyone had to guess. His hair was spiky, brown, and short, brushed to one side of his head so that his right eye was covered by the strains. A fedora sat on top his head with a small flower accessory of a single Begonia surrounded by buttercups pinned on one side.

Handsome was a most common thought when others saw his face, along with mysterious. Indeed, this man had some catching qualities about him. He had a face that looked calm and collected, yet others could feel a sort of mystery around him when they laid on upon him. As if there was something about him that he kept secret and hidden from the world.

“E-excuse me?” The man looked up from his newspaper. An owl, wearing a white coat and thick round glasses, nervously tapped his finger/feathers together, looking this way and that. “U-um. I-If it’s not t-too much t-trouble to a-ask, but um, c-can I sit h-here? I w-would unders-stand if you—”

“It’s no trouble.” The man smiled, gesturing to the seat across from him. “Please, have a seat.”

“O-Oh! Th-thank you!” The owl smiled nervously, sliding into the booth. “Th-there weren’t any other o-open available s-seats. The c-conductor usually p-pulls up at my s-stop, b-but he hasn’t m-made any of the r-regular s-stops today.”

“That might be my fault.” The man said, folding his newspaper and tucking it away in his suit. “You see, I had made some arrangements today on a short notice. I hadn’t intended for the passengers here to miss their stops.”

“I-It’s no trouble.” The owl waved his winged dismissively with an easy smile. “B-Believe it or n-not, the c-conductor does this a-all the time. I’m just s-surprised that he h-hasn’t blown anyth-thing up yet! K-Kind of relieved a-actually.”

The man hummed, leaning against the table with a soft smile on his face. “Well, I did have to pay a fine amount of pons to convince him for a safe ride. But.” He glanced out the window. “I’m sure we’ll be stopping soon. Just for a small moment to pick up a friend of mine.”

“I d-don’t recall there b-being any s-stops this far o-out.” The owl looked out the window as well. “E-Especially since i-it’s near… there.” His voice got quiet near the end, sinking into the booth’s seat.

“Near where?”

“Y-you know.” The owl muttered something under his breath.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t quite catch that.”

The owl muttered again. Much quieter than before.

“Could you please raise your voice just a smidgen? I don’t think I heard—”

“SUBCON FOREST!” The owl blurted out. He slapped his wings over his beak, looking out to the other passengers. Wide eyes were staring at the pair, though the man noted how their faces had the look of fear on all of them, like the owl had said something that was not too be mentioned and broken an important rule.

“… I take it that it’s not a nice place then?” The man asked, looking back at the owl in front of him.

“n-no.” The owl sunk in his seat further. “i-it’s not.”

The man hummed, gazing out the window. “Well, I hate to break this to you, but that’s exactly where this train is stopping at.”

The air inside the rail car went cold. Owls who overheard the man gasped and whispered amongst themselves with notable fear in their tones.

“ _Is he serious?!_ ”

“ _The Owl Express stopping at **that** place?! Doesn’t he realize what’s in there?!_ ”

“ _This has to be some sort of bad joke!_ ”

“ _I want my mommy!_ ”

The man raised an eyebrow. He knew owls tended to be nervous and soft spoken, but he had never seen this level of fear in any owl.

“Y-you’re kidding… r-right?” The man looked at his companion, who had sunken so low that only his eyes poked out above the table, their gaze glued on him with fear and denial. “Y-you do kn-know a-about th-th-that p-place, d-don’t you?”

“I’ve heard about it. And I have studied about that forest.” The man placed an elbow on the table, placing his chin on the back of his hand. “Not much info about it sad to say. It does have some… interesting rumors.” He smiled. “But, I rather not try to find out if they’re true or not. I’m only hear to see if my friend has gotten what I needed from that place.”

“W-What would y-you need f-from _there_? I-If you h-heard of the r-rumors then w-why go anyw-where near th-there?!” The owl nearly screamed, waving his arms/wings about. “O-On a m-more imp-portant note, why s-send your f-f-friend in there?! They c-could be in d-danger or d-dead!”

To the owl’s surprise, the man laughed.

“Don’t be silly, my fine feathered fellow! I took precautions to make sure that he comes back alive.” The man leaned back with a large smile on his face. “I’m not someone who would risk the life of others or selfishly use them for my own purposes. No.” He shook his head. “I make sure to plan things right down to the mark. To have everything go smoothly without fail.”

“B-but you c-can’t just s-send someone in th-there and e-expect them to c-come out again.” The owl rose up, sitting back in his seat again. “Th-that’s like a d-death sentence!”

“Indeed.” The man nodded his head, though his smile remained on his face. “But as I said, I take precautions and safety measures. And, if I am to be quite frank.” He leaned forward, putting a hand against his mouth as if to shield it so only the owl before him could see it move. The owl, for his part, found himself leaning in like an eager child who was about to be told a great big secret. “ _My friend volunteered to do it and he’s very stubborn to be dissuaded. If he wants to do the task that he thinks he can manage on his own, he’ll never step down, no matter how many times you try to talk him out of it. I think he only does it for the thrill for doing a near impossible task._ ”

“B-But, can he r-really do it?”

“Well.” The man leaned back, glanced out the window. Outside the window, a dark forest was coming into view. “So far, he hasn’t failed to complete a task yet.”

“A-and, how a-are you s-sure that he’ll b-be okay?”

There was a moment of silence between them, before the man sighed, reaching into his suit and pulling out some paper and a pen. Setting the paper on the table, the man began drawing something on the sheet. “Tell me, what does this picture look like?” He asked when he was done, pointing at the sheet of paper before him.

The owl, confused, adjusted his glasses and leaned down to look at the paper. “A… g-ghost?” He said, staring at the cartoonishly drawn ghost on the paper.

“Precisely. Now.” The man flipped the paper over, drawing something else on the blank sheet. “Say that you are a ghost. It doesn’t matter who or what you are or how you died, you’re a ghost.” The man pointed the end of the pen at a new drawing of a different ghost. “Not much is known about ghosts to this day. And yet, they’ve been around for years. _Centuries_ even.”

He tapped the pen on the table. “For years, ghosts have been the least known creatures in the world. No one knows what they can do or even how to become a ghosts after death, though there have been some ideas floating around that ghosts are a result of a tragic death.” He took out a different paper, drawing a person with a knife in their chest and their soul escaping their body.

“However, some believe that a person’s soul stays behind because they had unfinished business before they died. But these are just speculations. I, however, am more interested to what they can do. You see, since no one knows much about ghosts, there’s not a lot of information about them. Yet, with enough digging, one can find interesting things they had not known before.”

He flipped the paper over, drawing a star shooting across a night sky. “Through this information, I learned that every hundred years, a special star known as Miranda’s Comet.”

The owl perked up at the name. “O-Oh! I’ve h-heard about M-Miranda’s C-Comet! It’s a s-special comet that g-give off a u-unique energy and p-power wave l-length the scientist have d-dreamed of studying. It o-only stays for o-one night sadly.”

“Yes indeed. Only one night when it’s visible. But for a ghost.” The man drew something under the star. “They can sense its presence days before its arrival. And it’s during this time when ghosts sleep.”

The owl blinked in confusion. “S-sleep?”

“Yes. Sleep.” The man fished his drawing, showing it to the owl. “Miranda’s Comet seems to have some sort of effect on them. Putting them in a sort of slumber for about a week. Three days before the comet arrives, the day it arrives, and three days after it has left. Unfortunately, that was all we come find. It doesn’t explain why Miranda’s Comet puts ghosts to sleep, nor why Miranda’s Comet is the only comet that does this.”

The owl studied the picture, blinking as he stared at the drawing of a ghost sleeping under the star. “… A-Are you s-saying you s-sent your f-friend in there th-think Miranda’s C-Comet has put a-all the g-ghosts to s-sleep?”

“To put it frankly, yes. Though, I still didn’t send him in without some confirmation that this was true. A willing soul was kind enough to go in there a day before and come back with not a single scratch or harm to their body. Still.” The man put the picture down, looking out the window. “I made sure he only went in when Miranda’s Comet was right in the earth’s atmosphere just for the safe side.”

“A-and, you’re s-sure he’s alright?”

“Trust me my friend.” The man smiled as the train slowly came to a stop beside the forest, spying a familiar figure standing by the forest’s edge. “He hasn’t failed me yet.”

~~***~~

It was a typical day in Mafia Town.

Bright sun. Seagulls flying. Mafia were walking around doing… whatever Mafia did.

All and all, it was a natural day to young Bow. Aside from the fact that she mainly had to keep a distance from the Mafia and tried her best not to draw any attention to herself along her way down to the small beach.

Gripping her backpack strap tightly, she gingerly made her way down the small sandy beach, hoping that she wasn’t being followed in the exposed daylight. She really didn’t want to cause her friend any more trouble than she was already in. It didn’t hurt to keep looking over her shoulder just to be sure.

Bow considered herself to be a nice girl. A good girl that didn’t get into too much trouble with others. Her friend on the other hand… well, she tended to make a scene when things were considered ‘wrong’ in her eyes.

She wasn’t a bad person. Bow knew her heart was in the right place. It was just that her personality and rashness tended to get her in trouble sometimes that was too big for her to handle on her own.

And ever since the Mafia arrived, things certainly hadn’t been so great for her friend or herself.

“Mu? Are you here?” Bow peeked inside the small cave that her friend had been living in since the Mafia arrived. She was partially surprised that none of the Mafia had found her yet. The hideout wasn’t all that hidden, nor was it hard to find. Yet despite the relatively easy finding of this place, not a single Mafia had found this place.

Either they didn’t have the best seeking skills, or they were just too dumb to notice the crude painting of their leader’s face with a giant red X over it with the repeating words _SOD OFF_ pointed at it. Probably both.

The Mafia weren’t exactly the brightest as far as she had seen. They got confused rather easily and didn’t have the best thought out plans. Big and tough, yes. But not at all that smart.

“Mu?” She called out, looking for her friend. She frowned when she couldn’t spy any sign of her friend anywhere. It was regular to find Mu gone from her hideout, probably out messing with the Mafia or setting up a plan somewhere in town.

“BOO!” Bow jumped as something grabbed her shoulders, making her scream and dive into the cave for cover, hiding herself under her bag. She slowly blinked open her eyes as she heard a familiar laughter reach her ears.

“Mu! That wasn’t funny!” Bow shouted as she got up from the ground and glared at her friend.

Mu, a young blond girl with a matching mustache on her face, continued to laugh, holding her sides as tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. “Come on Bow! That was funny! You need to lighten up more!”

Bow puffed out her cheeks. “You know I don’t like being snuck up on! It doesn’t help that the Mafia are making things worse for me! Do you know how many times I have to keep looking behind myself when I come to visit you?!”

Mu’s laughter started to die down, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. “Alright, I’m sorry.” She smiled, placing her hands on her hips. “Still, you’ve got to be more on guard. If I can sneak up on you that easy, then who knows what else might!”

“I know, and I try! It’s just…” Bow shifted her feet in the sand. “Hard.”

“Well you’re not helping me get anywhere close to defeating the Mafia with _that_ attitude!” Mu walked up to her friend, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “We need to build up your courage Bow! The quicker you build up your nerves, the quicker we’ll be rid of these brutes! Speaking of which, how’s your grandma doing? Have the Mafia been giving her anymore trouble?”

Bow shook her head, brushing off Mu’s arm and taking off her backpack. “No. They’ve been keeping a distance from her for now. Which I think is good for me and Gran for the time being.” She opened her backpack, taking out a brown bag and handing it to Mu. “She also made extra last night and thought you would like some.”

“Sweet! What did she make?” Mu tore open the bag, reaching inside and taking out a container.

“Beef stew. And some pumpkin bread.”

Mu whooped with joy. “Awesome! Your grandma is the best!”

“She tries. She’s just worried about you since you’re the only person left since the Mafia arrived and, well, you’re still a kid.” Bow took out another brown bag, filled with the same things Mu’s bag was filled with.”

“Hey! I’m not just a kid!” Mu huffed, opening the container and dumping some of the stew in her mouth. “Mm ma mormimer!”

Bow crack a smile at her friend’s antics. “You know Gran packed some forks in your bag, right?” She took out her own plastic fork for Mu to see.

Mu rolled her eyes, swallowing the stew. “Let’s try to stay focus here. I’ve got a new plan to get rid of the Mafia this time!”

“You’re not going to plan on strangling them with their ties like last time right?” Bow asked, sitting herself down on the sand.

“Pfft, no. That was the old plan. THIS plan will definitely drive all the Mafia away once and for all!”

Bow rolled her eyes, but listened as her friend went over her new plan against the Mafia while she enjoyed her meal. She understood why Mu was so determined to get rid of all the Mafia. She did! She remembered it like was just yesterday.

That day had been normal. Bright, sunny, enjoying the nice breeze while walking around the market looking for everything on the list her Gran had given her. She had just finished half of it when the Mafia arrived and started taking over the island. Logic told her to run and find Gran, which she did.

From that day, only she, Gran, and Mu were the only ones left from the island since the Mafia arrived. She didn’t know what happened to everyone else, and she hoped that they were okay.

“—and that’s how we’ll be rid of the Mafia! Once and for all!” Mu finished her little plan ranting, looking proud of herself. “There’s still a few things that need to be worked on before we can put our plan into action, and tomorrow night is going to be tric—”

“Wait, when?” Bow blinked, not sure if she heard Mu correctly.

“Tomorrow night. The Mafia plan on making this HUGE fireworks show in celebration of some rock flying through the sky.”

“That soon?!” Bow felt a deep pit form in her stomach. “Don’t you think that you’re rushing a bit?”

“It _would_ have been rushing it if they had the fireworks show _tonight_ when the rock thing is here, buut apparently the ship full of fireworks doesn’t come till tomorrow.” Mu shrugged. “I’m kind of glad though. I plan to watch the sky tonight and I don’t want some stinky Mafia messing it up!” She paused a moment. “Are you staying up to watch the comet?”

“W-well, yeah. Gran and I plan to row out to one of the smaller islands later so we can get a good spot to watch.” Bow pointed out at the ocean. “Gran wanted to know if you wanted to come along as well.”

“Mmmaybe.” Mu shrugged. “But I don’t want to intrude on a family thing. I’ll just find somewhere to watch the sky tonight.”

“If you say so.” Bow sighed, putting her empty container in the brown bag. “If you change your mind, we wouldn’t mind if you tagged along. Gran likes your company.”

“And I like her cooking.” Mu smiled, her mouth covered in leftover stew. “Give my complements when you get back?”

“You know it.” Bow smiled, slipping her backpack on and started heading off. She was only a few feet away when Mu called out to her.

“Oh! And one more thing I should mention! Try to avoid being seen tomorrow! We’ve got a lot of work to do for the big night! This is going to be the best thing we ever did!”

“I’m sure it will.” Bow gave her friend an easy smile, continuing on her path home.

~~***~~

“I hate this train.”

The man looked up from his newspaper at his friend seated across from him, frowning in disapproval of his words. “It's not that bad Messer.”

Messer huffed, crossing one leg on top the other, his large lime green eyes gazing around the private room they were in with distaste. “Did you really have to pick me up in _this_ old thing? You know I hate riding in enclosed vehicles. Not enough room to run around and feel the air.”

“I could always open the window if you want.” The man pointed to the only in the room, but Messer shook his head.

“No. There’s nothing but hot desert out there, and I hate it when sand gets in my coat.” Messer held up one of his paws, flexing his fingers and claws out. “Takes hours to pick every bit of grain out of my fur and itches like peck.”

“If you wish.” The man shrugged, going back to his paper.

Silence was in the room, something that both preferred to be in for regularly long periods of time. The silence was comforting, giving both individuals time to think and take in their surroundings.

Messer, taking his sweet time to run his claws through his sleek black fur, kept looking up at his friend, glancing at him with a blank look but held something deep inside. “…Aristotle.”

“Hm?”

“What are planning this time?”

“I have no idea what you mean Mes.” Aristotle kept his eyes on the paper, reading it with great interest like nothing else mattered.

Messer frowned at the nickname, but knew he had to keep his cool. Aristotle loved to get a rile out of him, having done it more times than he could count over the years they knew each other. “Come on, at least give me a clue to what you plan on doing with the _so called special item_ you had me go get from that creepy forest.”

“Creepy?” Aristotle looked up from the newspaper, looking at his friend with disbelief. “You, a master thief, afraid of something?”

“No. I just said that so you would look up from that stupid paper you carry around with you all the time.” Messer huffed.

“Oh. Should have guessed.” Aristotle smiled, folding the paper up and putting it away inside his suit. “Speaking of forests, you didn’t tell me much when you got abroad.” He placed his elbows on the armrests of his chair, locking his fingers together. “Was it everything that the rumors said it to be?”

“Spooky, dead, and pretty much a place where you get lost easily in? Yeah, that sums it up to what they say about Subcon.” Messer sighed, holding his chin with one paw. “I was honestly hoping that comet thing was a hoax. The only real danger I encountered in there was getting lost in that forest before I found what I was looking for.”

“So.” Aristotle grinned mischievously. “No ghost fights I take it?”

“It would have made things a lot more interesting.”

“I’m sure it would have. But I really can’t risk my best friend to the likes of death now, can I?”

“Come on Aris, I do this type of things all the time. Hunting in rain storms out at sea, navigating through thick jungles, spying on enemy competition, stealing intel and other goodies that catch your eyes. But this? This task was just pecking boring and stupid.” Messer flopped backwards in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. “… They at least could have put a skylight in this room so we could have watched the comet pass by.”

Aristotle rolled his eyes playfully. “Nighttime won’t come for another few hours, we’ll have enough time once we get to the ship to watch Miranda’s Comet pass by.”

“I hope so. A comet that only come every one hundred years is pretty special.” Messer huffed. He eyed the ceiling for a while longer before looking back at his human friend. “… soo… are you going to at least tell me a bit about your new plan?”

“When we get back to the ship my good friend.” Aristotle smiled as Messer groaned. He watched as his friend got out from his seat, stretching his long well-toned muscled limbs, and walk straight for the door. “And where are you going?”

“I’m not telling you. You don’t tell me what you’re planning, I’m not telling you where I’m going.” Messer slammed the door behind him, making Aristotle burst out in laughter.

After a minute or two of solid laughter, Aristotle sighed, already missing the company of the large grumpy black cat. He would probably follow him in another minute or so, just to make sure he didn’t scare the other passengers and make a scene.

“If only I could tell you my dear friend. But, why spoil the surprise?” He turned his gaze to the side of his chair. “After the comet passes, this will promise to be an interesting year that no one will forget.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know how I did and if there are any mistakes that I over looked! Thank you~!


End file.
